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George H. Duport.
Medical Officer of Health.
Borough of Twickenham.
Public Health Department,
Municipal Offices,
Twickenham.
August, 1937.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Borough of Twickenham.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The report on the health and sanitary conditions and on the measures taken to safeguard
and improve the health of the inhabitants of the Borough during the year 1936, which I now
submit, is the last report which will refer to the Borough of Twickenham as it existed before
its extension by the inclusion of the Urban Districts of Hampton, Hampton Wick and Teddington.
As the year also marks the completion of twenty-six years of my service as your Medical
Officer of Health, it affords an opportunity of viewing in retrospfept some of the changes which have
taken place during that period.
In 1911, the population, according to the census which was taken that year, was 29,367.
In 1936 the estimated population was 49,780, an increase of more than 20,000 persons.
In Whitton at that time there were 373 separate families. To-day the number in that
ward alone is nearly 4,600. It is significant to note that, although the population of the town
has increased by 20,000 persons, the number of births which occurred in 1936 was only 114
more than the corresponding number in 1911. To put it in another way, in 1911 ten babies
were born in every hundred houses, but in 1936 in every hundred houses only five babies arrived.
In 1911, the Medical Officer of Health for the first time became a whole-time officer and
devoted his entire time to the duties of Public Health administration and the School Medical
Services. His staff consisted of one School Nurse and two Sanitary Inspectors (one unqualified). No
clerks were employed and no office was provided for the Medical Officer. In 1936 the staff
comprised 18 persons, including part-time and specialist officers.
The Maternity and Child Welfare service had not arisen. The School Clinic was not
organised, although limited arrangements were made for the treatment of defects of vision and of
tonsils and adenoids among school children. In 1936 four Health Visitors were occupied in the
Maternity and Child Welfare service and at two Centres specially designed for the purpose,
Clinics had been established for the care of Expectant and Nursing Mothers, of children under
5 years of age and for the observation and treatment of school children.
Prior to 1911, cases of Scarlet Fever were admitted to the Isolation Hospital, which
contained 26 beds, but no provision was made for the hospital treatment of Diphtheria, although
ten out of every hundred cases notified during the preceding nine years had proved fatal. To-day
cases of all the infectious diseases are admitted to a hospital with a resident medical staff, and
the deaths from Diphtheria during the past nine years have averaged less than three per hundred
cases notified.
In the same year, the death rate of infants per 1,000 births was 111, and 39 infants died in
consequence of epidemic diarrhoea. In 1936, the infant death rate was 49, and the number
of children who died from diarrhoea was 4.
Without going into a more detailed examination of the circumstances leading to the
improved conditions, it is evident that the expanding scope of Public Health administration
during the last 25 years has been associated with an improvement in the health of the community
which would have appeared almost incredible to sanitarians a generation ago.
Much has been done, but still more remains to be accomplished, not only in preventing
disease which affects the community, but in maintaining and improving the standard of health in
the individual. It is in these directions that the extended facilities offered by the ever increasing
powers which are conferred on Local Authorities, operating over a greatly extended area, will
furnish opportunities for still greater progress in the years to come.
I am, Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant.